Part 23 (1/2)
”Miss Selincourt is not drowned, she has not been under water long enough,” Jervis said faintly ”I think she has just swooned from sheer terror”
”That is what it looks like,” said Mr Selincourt, with a sudden great relief co into his tone Then he stripped off his jacket to wrap his daughter in: the otherrain wetting them to the skin in about two minutes; but Mary must be wrapped as warmly as possible, and some kind of a litter had to be ihtly, put up her hand, and showed signs of returning life, and then her father deterer, but to carry her off to Seal Cove as quickly as possible, sending theJervis But by this tile to his feet, and declared that he would walk back to Seal Cove, if someone would help hi simply: ”If you will lean on et all the way I can stay with you until the men come back for you”
”Thank you, irl,” said Mr Selincourt, and then he hurried away to help the two portage men and Oily Dave to carry Mary across the hills to Seal Cove
The only litter they had was for her so and carrying her as best they could-no easy task, for she ell grown and well nourished, and in her present condition of collapse she lay a dead weight on their arress of Jervis was at first but a feeble crahile the bitter wind see rain took his breath away It was the middle of summer, but when the sun hid its face, and the wind blew from the north, it was hard to remember how hot it had been only yesterday
”Can you bear it?” asked Katherine anxiously, as he shi+vered and shook, clinging to her because he had so little strength to stand against the blast
”Istill Does the wind often come as chilly as this at midsummer?”
”There are occasional days like this, but the cold don't last long, and then the sun shi+nes again Do you think you would be a little warmer if I walked in front of you?” she asked wistfully, for his evident suffering, and her own impotence to relieve it, hurt her dreadfully
”I don't think the gain of having you for a wind buffer wouldyou as a crutch,” he said, as he hobbled slowly along in his stockinged feet He had kicked off his shoes when he went to the aid of Mary, and the rising tide had floated thelad that I ah She et through herself, and shi+vering with cold and fright, yet despite these drawbacks the occasion was like a festival, and her heart was singing for joy
”How did you know?” he asked, trying to understand how she chanced to be on hand at the critical moment with a rope
”Mary had written a note and tied it round the dog's neck, then sent the creature for help I found it howling on the other bank of the river, and went over to fetch the poor thing home; then I found the note, and came as quickly as I could,” she answered
”You came just in time for me,” he said in a shaken voice ”I don't think that I could possibly have held out five er, because of cramp, and I could not lift Miss Selincourt out of the water”
”I don't think I could have done it either if it had not been for Oily Dave,” Katherine answered, a quiver ofher tones ”Fancy Oily Dave as a rescuer of people in direful straits!
We shall have hi been a private benefactor, or at least I have regarded him as such,” Jervis said slowly
”What do youif he had forgotten the grirateful to him, and always shall, because he left me in the lurch that day when the water came in I had to owe my life to you that day; and but for you and your rope I must have perished to-day, Katherine I am really very much in your debt Do you think I shall ever be able to repay you?”
”Of course; if not s are always passed on,” she said lightly
”Of choice I would rather pay my debt in this case, if indeed it can be paid, to the person to whom I owe it,” he said, with a slow emphasis which made her heart beat tumultuously Then she remembered that it was her duty to stand aside for Mary's sake, and that she must not let this man love her if Mary had set her own affections upon him, as Nellie had more than hinted
A cold shi+ver shook Katherine then, for now the chill came from within as well as without, and the dreary day wrapped her exhausted body in its dismal discomfort
”Don't talk,” she said with a touch of authority in her tone ”Save your strength for enduring See, here co down froet on faster, you will find”
CHAPTER XXI
Matter for Heartache
Three days had passed away, and life had dropped into its accusto to vary the sae unless soer of his or her life, and really events had a way of proving her to be right When Katherine had rushed off in such a hurry that day, to help Mary Selincourt out of her fix, Mrs Burton had left her sewing, and, taking her sister's work in hand, had finished cleaning the shelves, then restored to the to her own ideas of neatness, instead of with any reed previously